OK...so now it's 22...
Most people want
to help the earth, but very few actually go out and do something (If you are one of those few, GREAT JOB!!). To
help the earth, you don't have to restore a river or clean up ten miles of highway. You can do those things, but here are some easier ways to help out. For even more ideas, read 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth, or 50 Simple Things Your Business Can Do To Save The Earth.
These are great books all by the EarthWorks Group. Try them!
(1) Put a bleach bottle in your toilet. Fill it with water, put on the cap tightly, and put it in the back part of your toilet. A brick inside a plastic bag to contain all the crumbs would also work. Since the average toilet uses 3 to 7 gallons of water per flush, the brick or bottle will displace some water, so your toilet will use ½ - 1 gallon less each time someone uses it!
(2) Plant a tree. There are two ways to do this old idea. You could find a tree (like a maple) that produces seeds every spring, collect a few, and plant them. Start them in pots until they're at least a foot tall, then put them in the yard. The other way is, of course, to go out and buy a young tree to plant. The price may vary from $20 to over $200, depending on the size or type of tree. We know that because of the cost, not everyone can plant a tree, but it's a great way to save the earth's oxygen!
(3) Re-use your plastic sandwich bags. Plastic takes over 100 years to biodegrade, so the less plastic we throw out, the better. After using a plastic bag, wash it out with soapy water and let it dry. Then you can use it over and over again, and it works just as well as a new bag! This will also save you some money when you don't have to buy as many new bags!
(4) Make your meals earth-friendly. When packing a lunch, put sandwiches, chips, etc. in reusable plastic containers instead of sandwich bags. Carry your drink in a washable thermos bottle, and your lunch in a reusable lunch container. For meals at home, put leftover food in hard plastic washable and reusable containers. (You could save glass jars and deli containers for this!)
(5) Use both sides of paper. If you have to scribble down directions or make a quick math calculation, don't just throw the paper away when you're done! Save it for the next time you need to jot something down quickly. Having a few pages of "scrap" paper around is a good way to keep yourself from wasting new sheets each time.
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(6) Don't give kids nice packaged computer paper to color on. Little kids seem to love to make one line on a piece of paper and then get a new one. Because of this, don't use packaged printer paper (which can be $6 for 500 sheets) when cheaper notebook or recycled paper will work. If you work in an office, bring home scrap paper that is still blank on one side! Many network printers print out title sheets with every printout, telling who printed it. One-sided "junk" flyers are good too--sometimes they even come in colors. Use these for kids' coloring paper.
(7) Make your house energy efficient. One visitor to our site mentioned that after installing compact flourescent light bulbs and other energy-efficient appliances, his electricity bill went down 75%. Compact flourescant bulbs last ten times longer than regular incandescent bulbs, plus they don't produce nearly as much wasted heat. NOTE: This imformation was updated on 7/5/01.
(8) If you don't need a light on, don't use one! If it's 1:00 on a bright sunny day, don't turn on a light that you don't need. If you're going to be in a room for only a minute, try to go without any electric lights at all. Most houses have enough windows that you won't need to use lights for most of the daytime. And if you do have to turn on a light, turn on only as many as you need.
(9) If you have a leaky faucet, catch the drips. If your faucet is leaking, of course you should get it fixed. But, what about the time before it's fixed? Put a pan, bowl, or cup underneath to catch the water, and use it for something else like watering a plant, cooking, making Kool-Aid, or drinking! There's nothing wrong with the water; it came out of the tap just like normal. Be careful! A leaking faucet can fill a coffee cup in 10 minutes, so watch the size of your container and how fast it fills up.
(10) "Recycle" your clothes. Once your kids grow out of their clothes, or you no longer like or fit into something, DON'T THROW IT AWAY! If you want to make money, try having a garage sale. Too much work? The Salvation Army or other clothing donation stores offer tax refunds for donated clothes. Resale shops will pay you for clothes you give them. Feeling moral? Donate your clothes to the needy or to other clothing drives for the poor.
(11) Open windows instead of using air conditioning. When the temperature outside is right around the temperature inside, then save some money, electricity, and the earth by opening some windows. If you do that at night, then your house will cool down without costing you a cent!
(12) Donate to an ecological organization. If you don't feel like doing anything for the earth, pay someone else to! If you have extra cash, the groups would greatly benefit from your donation. The more money they have, the more ways they can reach out to help our earth! To see a list of organizations you could write to, visit our Organizations To Write To Page.
(13) Buy organically-grown foods. Some grocery stores now have organic sections where you can purchase all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and cereals that have had no chemical fertilizer, pesticides, or herbicides. Show the stores you care by buying these things! They'll be better for you and for the earth because no chemicals are going into the soil or water.
(14) Snip your 6-pack holders. Countless animals and birds die from uncut 6-pack holders and other ringed packages each year. They get caught in the holes and are choked to death. Make it a habit to cut all the rings apart when you throw away a 6-pack holder!
(15) Buy recycled products! Paper, packaging, plastic containers, cardboard, and other products are being sold that have been recycled. By all means, buy these products, but be carful when reading the labels. Don't confuse "recycled" with "recyclable"! Lots of companies will put the recycling symbol or "100% recyclable" on their products to appeal to ecologists. While that is all fine and good, "made from recycled waste" or "post-consumer waste" is what you really want. If you buy recycled notebook paper for school, no one will really care if your paper is a shade greyer than the non-recycled kind.
(16) Use permanent silverware and dishes instead of paper ones. Not only will you save the earth, you'll save money! Why use disposable plastic silverware when you can buy regular ones? The last thing we need is extra garbage in landfills, and this is a great way to cut down on some of it. Use permanent kitchenware unless you absolutely have to use disposable stuff!
(17) In general, don't use disposable products at all. Diapers, pens, razors, towels; they're all disposable, so there are many ways to do help the earth this way. Use cloth diapers instead of disposable plastic ones. Don't use paper towels--old t-shirts or towels work fine as messy-use rags. Those multi-use paper towels that claim to be strong enough to use again may be, but it's still cheaper to use an old rag, and the rag will probably work better! What's the use of using disposable razors if you have to buy a new bag every other week? It will save you money just to get a good one to keep using! In other words, don't get sucked into the world of simple disposable items because "it's easy and convenient."
(18) Buy in bulk. One 32-ounce bottle will use less packaging than two 16-ounce ones, even though the total size is the same. Plus, the larger bottle will probably cost less per ounce than the other two combined! For an example, let's look at pop. A 2-liter bottle of pop costs $1, or about 1.5¢ per ounce (there's 67 ounces). The packaging comes to about 163 square inches. Opposing this is the 12-pack of cans. The cost is about $3 for 144 ounces, or 2.1¢ per ounce. The total packaging here comes to 600 square inches! The 2-liter is much better! Less cost per ounce, and a lot less garbage in the landfill!
(19) Don't buy products with lots of packaging. As you can see from above, the more packaging, the more cost. If you see a small product (for example, a toothbrush) wrapped in five layers of plastic with a flashy cardboardy thing, all in a box made of a foam-like plastic, chances are most of the price is because of the packaging. Find a similar product with less packaging. Wouldn't a plastic wrapper or cardboard box be just as good? Also, stay away from individually wrapped candy and other products. Also, select fresh produce from display bins instead of the pre-packaged variety. The more packaging, the more price, and (more importantly) the more garbage in the landfills.
(20) Buy dolphin-safe tuna and other eco-safe products. Every day, dolphins get caught in tuna nets. You can do something about it! Check the label of the tuna you buy to make sure it it dolphin-safe, that is, catching the tuna doesn't harm dolphins. There will be a special logo on the label to tell you if it is dolphin-safe.
(21) Spread the word about conservation. Any way you can, get people to think about the earth. There are almost 6,000,000,000 people on this earth, and every one of them needs to take care of it! Always look for environment-safe products and encourage others to do the same. From recycling to buying less packaging to planting trees to saving water to conserving energy, keep the environment in mind. Don't forget to visit our Links Page for more information on the Internet. Posters can be a great way to spread the word, so drop by our Poster Page to look at some, print them out, or get your own ideas.
(22) Use rechargable batteries. Although they may cost more to buy, rechargable batteries will save you 10 or 20 times the original cost (by not buying new batteries over and over again), and not get thrown in the trash. Prolong the life of any batteries by using a cord (and AC adapter, if necessary) for radios and other appliances when possible.